Basin Electric reaches new all-time member billing peak in August

Basin Electric set a new all-time high member billing peak. 

J.P. Maddock, Basin Electric manager of Regional Transmission Organization and Delivery Services, said final billing determinants completed for August 2023 show Basin Electric hit a new all-time-high member billing peak of 4,689 megawatts (MW), surpassing the December 2022 all-time member billing peak by about 10 MW. This summer’s all-time peak is about 300 MW higher than last summer’s peak.

Previously this summer, Basin Electric had set a new summer billing peak in July, at 4,586 MW.

It’s more common for Basin Electric to set all-time peaks in the winter rather than summer, according to Maddock, but with the changing load profile across the cooperative footprint, summer all-time billing peaks will likely become more common. “The August peak is primarily due to hot temperatures across the service area, incremental new sales to members in Minnesota, and new loads throughout the service territory,” Maddock said.

Prior to 2022, the last all-time billing peak that happened in summer was in 2013.